A few questions about weaning

[CuteLittleToes]

Sorry this might be a longish post but just wanted to put all my questions in one post.

DS is 6 months in a week and I first planned to start introducing solids the coming weekend, but then I thought I would start a week earlier and see how it goes, especially as he has been sitting well on his own for a few weeks and putting toys in his mouth pretty much since he started grabbing them. I don't know about tongue reflex and I guess the only way to test it is to try?

So we started yesterday and it didn't go well. I gave him some mashed carrot and broccoli (separately) and also chunks of carrot and broccoli to play with. He accepted spoon ok but made really disgusted face. He held food in his mouth for a bit with his mouth open as if showing us he's not eating that and then spat it out. He made same face when putting carrot in his mouth himself, although he's done it repeatedly. He might have "chewed" a tiny bit, but I'm not so sure. We then gave a bit of mashed potato, and for a few seconds it seemed like he liked it, but then that was spat out as well.

Today I gave him a bit of steamed mashed apple and again chunks to play with. It went a bit better, he even smiled at the first spoonful, although half fell out of his mouth. However, a few spoonfuls later he started pulling the same faces like yesterday... although I think today he actually ate about a baby spoonful.

I think today might have been better as it was lunch time as opposed to dinner, so he wasn't as tired...

I'm assuming this is normal and it's not so much the taste he doesn't like as the novelty of something tasting differently to bm? Should I just persevere, and he will start eating without pulling faces? I'm not really fussed about spoon feeding or blw (a combination of two is ideal IMO).

I know it's very early days and I really thought I wouldn't be stressing about it, which I'm not, but I guess I need some reassurance?

I think I might try mashed potato with a bit of bm tomorrow and see how it goes.

I was actually wondering how people cook porridge with bm (once I get to that stage)? I guess you can't really heat it up like you would normal milk - do you just make thicker porridge and add bm after?

Also I'm sure I've seen this on earlier threads, but could anyone recommend good weaning book? I have River Cottage one, but I wanted to get one more.

Lastly, when/how do you get to 3 meals a day? I know it's supposed to be at around 8-9 months, but just wondering when do you add additional meals? I'm only offering once a day now - do I add another one after he starts eating a couple spoonfuls without spitting most of it out, or do I wait till he actually eats a good portion (which I assume would be about a tablespoon?) during that one mealtime and then add another one? Or do I just keep adding them even if he only eats tiny amounts but then he'll build them up eventually? (I'm sorry if I didn't explain this very well...)

TIA

once he is 6 months old then you can use cows milk to make up porridge, use in cooking, in other cereals, etc

You can make up baby porridge with colled boiled water or BM - doesn't have to be hot. Weirdly they don't notice whether food should be hot/warm/cold (my Ds loved cold baked beans in his first year of weaning)

First tastes really are just that - everything tastes strange to him and he may still have natural instinct to push food out even if he actually likes it. Just keep trying different foods and try them again. He is far too young to know that he does or doesn't like anything (wait til he is an opinionated 3 year old for that)

Try mushed up banana - a bit sweeter without the tartness of pear or apple so may go in a bit easier. You can mix in a bit of baby rice to let them down as well. Just be warned that banana come out with little black bits - your baby doesn't have worms!!

As for adding meals - just go with your baby, if he is restless and putting his fists in his mouth, try a few spoonfuls at tea time. Also depends on how much time you have, if you can manage a few small tastes each day, or go for more food at one sitting and save yourself some time in the day. You'll get to 3 meals eventually however feels the "right" way for you.

Re books - I found the library the best place to go. Have a look at a few as cherry pick best bits.

Hth

I've just started weaning my 6 month old too. I got an Anna Karmel book (top 100 baby purees, mainly cos it was reduced on Amazon) but also got a free 5 step weaning plan from cow and gate -( google it online) which I've found great as it has spaces to record likes dislikes etc..

We started with mashed up banana with bm, then tried sweet potato, carrot, apple, pear and parsnip (different one each day)- all cooked and puréed with a bit of bm to start with but not anymore. First she did what you describe and made faces and spat them out, but tried again and now she loves them with the exception of apple. She adores puréed pear so we have that most days as a 'pudding' for whatever veg we're trying.

We also do porridge in the morning now, with mashed up Banana in as she didn't like it plain, and she loves playing with and eating that too.

I was told to persevere, and don't be too concerned if to start with she spits it all out or plays with it more than eating it, as she is still getting most of nutrition from milk ATM

Thanks for your replies. Today we tried banana and avocado, that was a huge success I guess I just have to keep trying and will soo. Figure out what works and what doesn't